High-tech wizardry adds to ‘Sunday in the Park with George’
Published 7:01 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009
At first I worried that all the high-tech wizardry would make the musical “Sunday in the Park with George” too gimmicky.
But I was so wrong. I wasn’t that far into this captivating and beautifully crafted musical when I started to wonder how Stephen Sondheim pulled this off in the 1980s without the technology.
A musical based on a painting? Boring.
So the state-of-the-art computer imaging technology that — cliche alert — made the sets and scenes come alive here did indeed enhance the Sondheim genius, not take away from it. So much so that the ending of Act I, when the painting “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” emerges before our eyes, ends up being one of the most stunning scene-closers in musical theater.
That painting is the centerpiece of “Sunday in the Park with George.”
The play is based on painter George Seurat’s creation of his iconic masterpiece, examining what Seurat had left to give after his life was devoted to this obsession. We’re taken through the journey of this painting, produced by the painter’s breakthrough method of using colored dots of paint rather than brush strokes.
We are treated to vignettes as the painting’s characters emerge as real people. In Act II, we see Seurat’s descendant learning that “art isn’t easy” and that “moving on” might be the only way to realize fulfillment.
Bravo to set designer David Farley, lightning designer Ken Billington, and projection designers Timothy Bird and the Knifedge The Creative Network, and director Sam Buntrock, whose work was amazingly eye-catching and, forgive me, a true work of art.
The play opens with the stage appearing as a giant gallery with huge doors. The action begins with everything awash in blank-canvas white until little by little, the walls fill with color, images, people and finally the full masterpiece.
And bravo to the orchestra under the musical direction of Ian Eisendrath. Sondheim’s challenging pointillistic score of sparse isolated notes in widely varying registers demanded precision and the orchestra delivered.
Sondheim’s lyrics overflow with puns, with sentences that hopscotch and cartwheel every which way. But Eisendrath kept musicians and singers brilliantly on task during this musical workout so the stirring songs such as “Move On,” “Finishing the Hat,” and “Sunday” were heard without a hitch.
The star of the show was wildly talented singer and actress Billie Wildrick who let loose her Crayola box of skills as Dot, the mistress trying to save George from his obsession. Hugh Panaro played George solidly, as almost a tragic figure who lives for his art, adding that human emotion of heartbreak to this technologic tapestry.
Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424; goffredo@heraldnet.com.
